Brendan Gleeson – This Had Oscar Buzz

The cementing of Cillian Murphy as a major actor has been a long time in the making, possibly coming to fruition this weekend with the release of Oppenheimer. Audiences likely most know the actor for his starring role in Peaky Blinders, but his cinematic arrival began in the early 2000s with films like 28 Days Later. However, 2005 gave us a Cillian Murphy three-peat with Batman Begins, Red Eye, and this week’s film Breakfast on Pluto. With Murphy starring as a transwoman reconciling her family history in Ireland and Britain during the 1960s and 1970s, the Neil Jordan film ran the fall festival gamut and earned strong notices for Murphy (if not the film). But Murphy faced a stacked 2005 Best Actor lineup and this smaller queer film was left in the cold.

This episode, we talk about the film’s relationship to Jordan’s Oscar success The Crying Game and the director’s wide-ranging filmography. We also talk about Murphy’s career ascent as somewhere between character actor and leading man, the film’s dated presentation of queerness, and Murphy’s Golden Globe nomination.

Topics also include our Barbenheimer plans, The Borgias, and hating David Zaslav.

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In 2015, the ongoing efforts to champion stories told by and about women placed large awards expectations on Sarah Gavron’s Suffragette. A fictionalized telling of the women’s suffrage movement in Britain, Suffragette stars Carey Mulligan as Maud, a laundress who begins as a passive outsider and becomes a passioned activist. But once it debuted at the Telluride Film Festival, its initial harsh reviews squashed audience urgency to head to the theatre when it opened nearly two months later.

This episode, we discuss Mulligan’s many great performances that have yet to yield a follow-up nomination to her breakthrough nomination for An Education – and we praise her upcoming work in the daring Promising Young Woman. We also discuss the heavy competition of the 2015 Best Actress race that failed to honor Mulligan among the major precursors.

Topics also include Meryl Streep’s much-buzzed performance as Emmeline Pankhurst (that ended up being little more than a cameo), the chaos of the current Globes comedy race, and another round of Alter Egos.

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Tag: Brendan Gleeson

247 – Breakfast on Pluto

124 – Suffragette